LSU Chancellor Michael Martin said Friday afternoon he will likely accept the contract Colorado State University’s Board of Governors offered him this morning.
“I have not received the final offer,” Martin said. “I assume it will look like what we’ve talked about, but I haven’t seen the completed offer.
Martin said he negotiated a five-year contract with a base salary of $375,000 per year, $75,000 in deferred payments over the life of the contract, about $50,000 in incentives and housing and car assistance.
“Really it’s a chance to run a different kind of organization,” Martin said.
Informal talks between Martin and CSU started in December, before getting more serious in early January, when Martin said he made his first of three trips to Colorado to tour the university’s three-campus system. During one trip he met with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.
Leaving LSU would mean walking away from the final year of his contract and $625,000. Martin’s LSU contract pays a base salary of $400,000 per year but includes deferred payments that would increase his total compensation to $525,000 per year provided he says in Baton Rouge through 2013.
Martin has acknowledged that Colorado State is in a much better financial position than LSU.
His tenure at LSU’s main campus, beginning in 2008 coincides with the current period of massive budget cuts from the state.
LSU has lost $92 million in state support in the last four years. And lawmakers have told LSU to brace for another $43 million in cuts at the main campus if House Bill 1, the state’s $25 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that starts in July, stands as currently written.
In contrast, Martin has said the Colorado State System has “come out of the economic doldrums” and is in a position to give their faculty pay raises.
This isn’t Martin’s first opportunity to leave for the CSU system. He said he declined an opportunity to become the president of their main campus in Fort Collins about 10 years ago.
“I have not received the final offer,” Martin said. “I assume it will look like what we’ve talked about, but I haven’t seen the completed offer.
Martin said he negotiated a five-year contract with a base salary of $375,000 per year, $75,000 in deferred payments over the life of the contract, about $50,000 in incentives and housing and car assistance.
“Really it’s a chance to run a different kind of organization,” Martin said.
Informal talks between Martin and CSU started in December, before getting more serious in early January, when Martin said he made his first of three trips to Colorado to tour the university’s three-campus system. During one trip he met with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.
Leaving LSU would mean walking away from the final year of his contract and $625,000. Martin’s LSU contract pays a base salary of $400,000 per year but includes deferred payments that would increase his total compensation to $525,000 per year provided he says in Baton Rouge through 2013.
Martin has acknowledged that Colorado State is in a much better financial position than LSU.
His tenure at LSU’s main campus, beginning in 2008 coincides with the current period of massive budget cuts from the state.
LSU has lost $92 million in state support in the last four years. And lawmakers have told LSU to brace for another $43 million in cuts at the main campus if House Bill 1, the state’s $25 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that starts in July, stands as currently written.
In contrast, Martin has said the Colorado State System has “come out of the economic doldrums” and is in a position to give their faculty pay raises.
This isn’t Martin’s first opportunity to leave for the CSU system. He said he declined an opportunity to become the president of their main campus in Fort Collins about 10 years ago.
